Multi-contact medical electrode devices are placed in the human body for various purposes, such as brain-mapping in epilepsy treatment. In such treatments wires generally extend from the multi-contact medical electrode to a plural-contact tail. The plural-contact tail is linear in shape and contains an array of sleeve-like contacts spaced therealong. The plural contacts of the plural-contact tail are to facilitate quick electrical connection of the contacts of the multi-contact medical electrode device such as for monitoring, recording and analysis purposes. Connectors have been configured to simultaneously engage the contacts of the plural-contact tail for their individual electrical connection to separate wire strands which emerge from the connector.
Various connectors have been developed to facilitate plural-contact connection. Examples of such prior art plural-contact medical connectors are those disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,359 (Putz), U.S. Pat. No. 4,869,255 (Putz), U.S. Pat. No. 6,415,168 (Putz), U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,371 (Harris), U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,358 (Arnold et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,902,236 (Iversen), U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,820 (Kuzma), U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,557 (Harris), U.S. Pat. No. 4,461,304 (Kuperstein), U.S. Pat. No. 4,379,462(Borkan et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,633,889 (Talalla et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,258 (Inokuchi et al.).
Some medical connectors of the prior art have a number of shortcomings. Medical connectors for use in patients who have a seizure tendency must be secure. If a patient has a seizure there is the chance that the electrical connections could be destroyed or disrupted. Specifically, the plural-contact tails of multi-contact electrodes can become dislodged or broken by the involuntary movements that occur during a seizure. Therefore, it is important that the connector be secure so that it can withstand the jerking motions that are characteristic of seizures.
In certain prior art devices the electrical connector is a connector of the type that does not provide a secure connection and, therefore, the connector can become dislodged or broken. If a connector does become dislodged or broken it can result in a significant loss of information and time.
In summary, there are problems and shortcomings in prior connectors for use with multi-contact medical electrode devices.